1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for loading a program module in an operating system, and more particularly to a method for loading program modules in the operating system, which can shorten the loading time.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of film scanners that convert photographic film images into digital files that can be manipulated and processed using computer software such as Adobe Photoshop is well known. Such systems facilitate the user's selection of desired zoom, crop and magnification parameters. These parameters are to be employed when converting the original film image or resulting digital image file into a hardcopy print by means of an appropriate printer, such as optical printer, or digital printer such as inkjet or thermal dye printer or other digital printer system. Initially, such systems would be found at commercial establishments where qualified personnel would be available to advise and assist the customer in selecting appropriate print parameters. With the growing availability of personal film scanners and low cost digital color printers, users who have minimal familiarity with image processing and reproduction technology increasingly perform such operations in the home on personal computers.
Existing photo manipulation software, exemplified by the Adobe Photoshop program allows users to alter characteristics of an image and display it in modified form on a computer monitor/video display. The quality of the displayed image will be dependent on the resolution of the scanner used to capture the image as well as the resolution of the display monitor.
Many existing software applications support “plug-in” modules and are therefore referred to as client applications to such plug-in modules. These plug-in modules provide the client applications with new or extended services. Plug-ins may, for example, provide specially tailored image filtering functionality to client applications. Adobe Systems, Inc.™ currently offers several client applications, which support plug-in modules. One such client application is Photoshop™, a popular image processing application. Due to the popularity of Photoshop, many software companies develop Photoshop-compatible plug-in modules to extend the services of Photoshop in order to satisfy the requirement of the user.
However, when an application program such as Photoshop is launched, all of the program modules thereof are loaded in the operating system at the same time. The user needs to wait for a long time to complete the loading of all the program modules including the plug-in modules. Moreover, when the user operates the application program, some program modules or plug-in programs provide functions, which are seldom used, resulting in the waste of memory volume of the hard disk, which stores all of the program modules of the application program. And, the available memory space is also reduced. The conventional method for loading program modules in the operating system is a waste time and a waste of hard disk memory. Even, the user needs to prepare a hard disk with a larger memory volume in order to enable and execute the application program he/she desires, which results in a burden of cost.
Accordingly, it is an intention to provide a method for loading a program module in an operating system, which can overcome the above drawbacks.